THE WINNER

We're happy to announce Angie D. won the 2018 Starter Pack Giveaway! Thank you to all who entered and all of the experts taking part. For those of you who didn't win this time, we still invite you to connect with us on DreamerMade to help you get started on your idea where we can.

We're looking forward to providing Angie with a running start on her idea by throwing all the resources and expertise they need to get going. Experts in goal defining, digital marketing, intellectual property, graphic/web design and much more.

Stay tuned for updates on Angie's progress and other giveaway opportunities.

ABOUT THE GIVEAWAY

Coming up with an idea is exciting and thinking of the endless possibilities can feel like a drug. When it comes to taking a step further on an idea, it’s natural to lose that high and let the idea stay what it is. An idea.

You let yourself and others convince you that you don’t have the time, skills, budget, resources or guts to do it. You tell yourself, “I’ll come back to it later...” knowing later has come and gone.

I’ve experienced this to the point of frustration which eventually led me to develop DreamerMade, to help you make what you’ve dreamed up. The starter pack giveaway is an extension of our community and is meant to set someone up for success in the new year. We look forward to seeing it continue to grow and support many more incredible people.

THE PRIZE

1-on-1 goal defining session to help you nail down your idea and what you want to make

1-on-1 intellectual property session to help you understand how to best protect your idea going forward

1-on-1 idea development session to help you break down your goal into actionable steps

1-on-1 digital marketing session to help you get your idea in front of the right people

1-on-1 graphic design session to help you create attractive graphics for your idea

Rather than me on the other end, it was a personal video introduction from Amy Jones, Founder of Map Your Progress. I didn't know who she was at the time but instantly became a fan because she shared this new tool with me! I quickly created an account and sent her a video back which resulted in us setting up a video call.

On our call, I learned Amy is as true a maker as they come. Not only has she created a unique way to track goals of all kinds, she serves as a coach who helps people make progress on purpose. I highly suggest you take a minute to check out her site (thank me later).

If Amy would have chosen to send a lengthy introduction message, I probably would have still reached out but not as quickly and not with half as much excitement. If you're looking to make a great first impression or just cut back on a few emails, try Loom for free and let us know how you're using it.

We recommend this tool because we use it and like using it. We haven't received compensation from this tool or any others we've suggested. If we have, we've been bamboozled since none of us have seen the money.

Goal:Create a crowdsourcing development site for abandoned and underutilized properties.

While driving the streets of Buffalo, Craig had an idea as he passed the familiar abandoned buildings that loomed over his hometown. As he came across a grain elevator, much like the one pictured above, he thought of creative ways this and other abandoned buildings could be reused to add value to the community.

Quickly realizing the amount of funding to redevelop even one of these buildings would not be possible on his own and hating the thought that ideas like this die out, Craig set off to create 6ixr - a site for redeveloping abandoned buildings, powered by the crowd.

I think that there is a lake of imagination in how to reuse these structures and an opportunity to fill that void.

— Craig Spangler

Tell us a little more about your project

6ixr works to build a community that can help developers, municipalities, and businesses find new and creative ways to use existing structures.

Why did you start 6ixr?

I started this project to merge my passion for cities and my experience in IT to solve a problem that I see in the real estate markets.

What area do you most need help in? Are you looking for anyone with specific skills?

I came across a tool this week that deserves its own post so without further ado, meet DirtyMarkup.

Before

After

So what's the big deal? It's hard enough collaborating on a project with clean code you didn't write. Dirty code just sucks the joy out of life. I don't know about you, but I'm guilty of making dirty code aka being a joy killer.

Sometimes I'll get so caught up in adding a new feature, I'll forget to make it tidy. For those of you not familiar with this, believe me, I wasn't either. At least not until my team started making subtle comments...

(subtle comment)

So whether you're just starting out, are a coding guru or somewhere in between, please don't drive your team crazy like I have. Start using DirtyMarkup.

A few people have asked what tools and apps we use over at DreamerMade so I figured I would write a quick piece to give an idea of what we use in a given week and more importantly, why. This list primarily focuses on web apps + tools. This post would turn into a book if I included mobile apps so I'll save those for another time.

Tools aren't everything but they sure help get the job done faster. I've broken our tool box down into 3 sections: Design, Productivity, and Programming.

Note: We recommend these tools because we use them and like using them. As far as I know, we haven't received compensation from anyone on this list. If we have, I've been bamboozled since I haven't seen the money. - Ryan Dean

DESIGN

This Chrome extension is number one on my list because I use it every day. If you want to quickly sample a color code on a webpage, you'll want to check this tool out. I use it when I can't remember what hex color value I've used before or when I see a color I want to use. Best part, it's free!

Buying Adobe software is expensive! Luckily Adobe offers Creative Cloud, a much cheaper option that includes access to all of their programs for a monthly fee. I use Photoshop the most for graphics + mockups but occasionally use Illustrator and After Effects depending on what we need done.

When you don't need the heavy set of tools from Photoshop, Canva is a great alternative for designing quickly in the cloud. They have tons of templates for a range of applications including social media posts, infographics, and even posters. It's free to take advantage of most of their features but their paid work plan has some pretty cool features. One is the magic resize tool which we use to automatically resize one design to work with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Another nice feature of their upgraded plan is the brand kit which saves your brand colors, fonts, and logos for quick use in your designs.

Flaticon is the place for icons. Whether you need them for a website or social media graphics, chances are they'll have the icon you're looking for. The premium plan is nice since you get access to over 30,000 premium icons in addition to the one's included. Better yet, you don't have to credit the author for each icon used. I like giving credit where credit is due but this method does get old after you do it a few times.

Another Chrome extension I use constantly is Page Ruler, which allows you to measure any area on your screen to find out the dimensions in pixels. I use it when designing web elements for the website and even for designing social media graphics. You'd be surprised how much this tool comes in handy.

PRODUCTIVITY

I've always been a big fan of Google products, especially Gmail so it made sense to use Google Apps for our company. Adding team members and setting up a personalized company email address is a piece of cake. File management with Google Drive is fantastic with plenty of options for managing access and seeing changes made. It comes with 30GB of storage which is plenty for most but if you run out and need more, it's only a couple more dollars a month. Overall, I like how it connects with a lot of the tools we use and keeps things within reach like Google calendar, contacts, and hangouts.

FREEYep, another Chrome Extension made the list. If you need to take a screen capture of a web page, this nifty tool let's you do it quickly and then save it as a PNG file. We've used this for preparing demos, reviewing design issues, and even saving things we see that inspire us for a new project. If you prefer to take a screenshot of your entire screen you can use command + shift + 3 on your mac keyboard. You can also use command + shift + 4to capture a certain part of your screen.

If you post a lot of content on social media, you know how long it can take to manage. I just started using Buffer a few months ago but I've already seen huge time savings. The free version is okay but personally don't think it's worth using without the ability to schedule content for Pinterest or using the calendar tool, both of which are available on the $10/mo Awesome plan.

FREE for basic features, $10+ /mo depending on subscribersEmail Marketing has become a standard in business and Mailchimp happens to be our favorite email marketing tool. Their user friendly interface makes it easy to create great looking templates and even easier to track performance of our campaigns. They offer a lot of different pricing options but we prefer the monthly plan that grows as our subscriber list does.

FREEOkay, to be fair we might be a little biased adding this tool to the list but we do use DreamerMade to track + develop new ideas for platform features, marketing campaigns, and even events. It's a great feeling to accomplish something using the very thing you've created but we're the first to tell you it needs to be developed further to truly be the tool we envision.

PROGRAMMING

Github is a must have tool if you are developing a web or mobile app. We use it to manage our source code from the cloud, which makes it easy to access from almost anywhere. It also makes it possible for multiple team members to work on our code at the same time and keep track of these changes. The best thing about it for me is I can mess up and not worry about losing everything. I can't tell you how many times I've managed to make the worst bugs happen and the more I try to fix it, the worse it gets. Before Github, these errors would leave me defeated but for $7 a month now I can revert back to a point before the error. Well worth the price.

FREE for unregistered version, $70 for 1 licenseSublime Text is my text editor of choice when writing code for DreamerMade. It's easy to navigate between tabs of one project or multiple projects and has a lot of options for customization.

Amazon AWS helps the community "keeps the lights on" and stay online + store all of those fancy profile pictures and world changing documents you upload. It's not the easiest to use at first compared to Heroku but the ability to pay as you grow and the options for scalability really attracted us to AWS.

$18/moTechnically the opposite of a programming tool but it was only fair to include since this blog was created with Squarespace. I could of created a blog from scratch but it seemed like a hassle. Plus after using Squarespace in the past (when I was a newbie to coding) and remembering how easy it was to manage, it was an easy decision to make. They are great for more than blogs and have some really great templates for online stores and professionals.

Do you agree with this list? What apps + tools do you use? Share your feedback for a chance to be featured in an upcoming blog post.

Until next time

If you haven't already, make sure to sign up for the blog, follow us on social media and most definitely sign up for an account on DreamerMade.com.

Have questions or thoughts on our community, blog topics or just want to say "Hi I like you"? You can do all of the above in the comments below, through our platform or by emailing hello@dreamermade.com.

Watch Video, Read Below or BOTH

The world without toilet paper is a scary thought, but that horror was once real!

So who is responsible for making this item of necessity? Depends on your idea of toilet paper.

#1 Joseph C. Gayetty

In 1857, Joseph C. Gayetty started mass producing loose, flat sheets of paper. Each sheet was medicated with aloe and even included his name...not exactly the toilet paper we're familiar with today, but I'm sure glad someone started in the right direction.

#2 S. Wheeler

In 1871, S. Wheeler patents the "improvement wrapping paper". Apparently "toilet paper" was a little crude for that time, but things must've changed because 20 years later in 1891, Wheeler patents the "toilet paper roll".

Who will we credit?

Gayetty and Wheeler are widely regarded as the pioneers of toilet paper and we'll give them that, but there's someone else we think deserves credit for the toilet paper we know today.

The Northern Tissue Company

In 1935, The Northern Tissue Company markets its brand of toilet paper as "Splinter-Free"...you read that right. Back in the day using toilet paper came with a risk of splinters. Since we're no fan of terrible stuff like that, we give credit to The Northern Tissue Company as the maker of toilet paper.

Can you make modern toilet paper the thing of the past?

It took almost 50 years for someone to realize wiping with the chance of splinters is a bad idea and come up with a solution. What improvement will someone make in the next 50 years to make toilet paper today look crazy?

We're excited to announce our biggest update yet! We've rebuilt the DreamerMade community from scratch to make it faster and offer the features our members asked for.

Here's what's new with DreamerMade

Notifications

We figured it might be a good idea to give the community a way to talk to each other so don't be surprised if that yellow bell actually lights up.

Project Invitations

You can now invite people to your project by name (if registered) or by email.

Request to Join

Now you can request to join a private project and approve or ignore those requests as a project creator.

Suggested Steps

You can now suggest steps on projects where you have access and are not the owner. As project creator you can choose to make the suggested step available or not. If you do, it will be opened for other members of your project to contribute to it.

Joined Projects View

Now you can easily keep track of the projects you're a member of from your My Projects page.

Watch Video, Read Below or BOTH

(We like to give you options)

"You're like Kickstarter right?"...not quite

I can't begin to list the different ways I've tried to explain DreamerMade in a way where it just clicks consistently with everyone I meet. Some of the most effective pitches to date involve me describing it as a "Crowdsourcing Community".

The general response is "oh yeah crowdsourcing...like Kickstarter right?"...not quite.

You may be asking "how is this effective in explaining DreamerMade if it's not what you do?" It's not ideal, but it gives me a good place to start explaining what DreamerMade does in comparison to crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter. It goes a little something like this...

There are a lot of similarities between crowdfunding and crowdsourcing.

Both involve the support of the crowd

And can offer rewards to attract support

The main difference:

CrowdFUNDING is when a group supports a project with money.

CrowdSOURCING is when a group supports a project with their skills and knowledge.

One type is not better than the other and both offer innovative solutions to help a project reach it's full potential.

Is there a better way to pitch DreamerMade?

We started using the following to describe DreamerMade. Have a better way? Let us know and you will be forever known as "THE ONE". But really, we will make sure you get rewarded and recognized!

DreamerMade is an online collaboration community that enables its users to connect with the people and tools to take action on their projects.

Until next time

If you haven't already, make sure to sign up for our blog, follow us on social media and most definitely sign up for an account on DreamerMade.com.

Have questions or thoughts on our community, blog topics or just want to say "Hi I like you"? You can do all of the above in the comments below, through our platform or by emailing hello@dreamermade.com.

That song though?

Keeping it short and sweet this time with a video explaining how DreamerMade works. I hope the song motivates you as much as it did for me! ;) Huge thanks for being part of the community! We're continuing to make some big changes so hope to see you on the platform soon.

Until next time

If you haven't already, make sure to sign up for our blog, follow us on social media and most definitely sign up for an account on DreamerMade.com.

Have questions or thoughts on our community, blog topics or just want to say "Hi I like you"? You can do all of the above in the comments below, through our platform or by emailing hello@dreamermade.com.

Watch Video, Read Below or BOTH

How many ideas do you have in a day? How about a week? Whether it's a few or a lot, how many of them can you realistically make happen? More on that in a minute.

In the last post I talked about the different types of projects you can create on DreamerMade, each with a different goal.

Creative - make something just because you can

Community - make the world a better place

Venture - make some money

There are really two sides to the platform. "Shared" and "Not Shared" (if you can come up with better terms please call me!). On the "Not Shared" side you have complete control over how your projects are carried out as well as retain any and all ownership and Intellectual Property it includes regardless of the project type.

You also have control over the visibility type and who is able to access it.

Public - Any registered member can access and contribute

Private - any registered member can view project title, goal and main image, but must request to join for access and to contribute

Secret (default) - all details are hidden and members must be invited by project creator for access

"Shared" Projects

Of any of the projects you create regardless of their type, you can mark them as "Shared". When you mark them as "Shared" you are transferring ownership of the project and any Intellectual Property associated with it to the community.

That's crazy!...right?

Yes you're right. Who would want to give away their ideas or any ownership of their projects?

Now I come back to my earlier question...how many [...of the ideas you have on a daily/weekly basis] can you realistically make happen?

Think of ONE idea you have that you can basically rule out ever pursuing on your own because of lack of time, resources or you just don't care enough but still think it's a cool idea you'd like to see happen. New way nonprofits can engage volunteers? Sweet! Self-driving cars? Awesome!

So let's go with that idea you have for a self-driving car. You think of it every time you get stuck in traffic or when a fellow driver cuts you off for no reason...so what's the first step?

You may have some idea on where to start, but my guess is you'll hit a road block at some point because let's face it, that's a really big project.

Why share?

Instead of giving up on your idea for self-driving cars you could mark it as "Shared". When you do this a few things happen. First off ownership is transferred to the community and you are acknowledging that you are freely sharing this idea even though you may never see anything from it.

That's a bummer right? Depends on how you look at it. When you mark your project as "Shared", you transfer ownership but give it a chance to reach it's potential.

How? Once it's transferred, it becomes available to all members who can freely contribute their ideas, feedback and combined resources to make it grow.

What do I get out of it? First off you will be getting it out of your head and giving it a chance to be real. Then based on your initial details you added plus any new contributions you make will give you an opportunity to be recognized for those contributions or in the case of Venture Projects, possibly receive compensation.

Just imagine being able to contribute to different projects you're passionate about other than your own, receiving recognition and possibly even financial compensation. The opportunity to do what you love while making a living. That's my dream and I'm betting I'm not the only one.

Until next time

If you haven't already, make sure to sign up for our blog, follow us on social media and most definitely sign up for an account on DreamerMade.com.

Have questions or thoughts on our community, blog topics or just want to say "Hi I like you"? You can do all of the above in the comments below, through our platform or by emailing hello@dreamermade.com.

Watch Video, Read Below or BOTH

(We like to give you options)

In the first blog post, I mentioned doing a separate one to dive a bit deeper into the different projects you can create on DreamerMade so let's hope I stay on topic.

On the platform, ideas are in the form of projects and when most people hear 'idea' they tend to associate it with ones having a goal to make money. Everyone gets excited about making those potentially multi-million dollar ideas real and for good reason, so what happens "if it ain't about the money"?

Different Goals = Different Types

Since our ideas generally have different goals, we've separated projects into three types:

Creative - make something just because you can

Community - make the world a better place

Venture - make some money

Examples help me better understand things and I hope these will help get your creative juices flowing so you can start making those ideas of yours happen!

Creative Projects

GOAL: make something just because you can

EXAMPLES: Create a Website, write a Book, produce a Movie, make that perfect Item, so much more!

Creative Example #1 The Perfect Something

Ever find yourself looking for that perfect item that doesn't seem to exist yet? You don't want to buy hundreds of it or have to make a business out of it, you just want one of those perfect items for your own personal joy! Or maybe even that item does exist, but it just doesn't quite meet your needs. Don't settle, make it real with the help of other members by sharing exactly what you want.

Who knows maybe someone else is looking for the same thing and has the resources to help make it real. If you'd prefer to make things move a little faster and get more participation, you can always add a reward to the steps you need help with.

Creative Example #2 The Come Back to Later

Sometimes you may have an idea that isn't a priority, but you want to keep it on the back burner so you can remember to work on it when you can. For example, my mom loves coca-cola memorabilia and has always wanted a vintage coca-machine. I've always wanted to find one and refurbish it for her one or buy one already finished. The last option is pricey and the first one isn't much better since they're hard to find.

Since I don't want to roll over so easily on the idea, I added it on DreamerMade as a public Creative project. This way it's there for me to work on and others can let me know if they happen to run into an old one I can restore. Check it out.

Community Projects

GOAL: make the world a better place

EXAMPLES: Organize a new way to fundraise, Find a cure for disease, design a system for Preventing Tsunamis , the sky's the limit!

Community Example #1 Supporting Your Favorite Causes

Let's face it, giving back feels good, but it's not always easy to make time to volunteer or have the funds to write a check to our favorite organizations. What if it was possible to create a project that supported your favorite cause whether you were local or not? Now you can with DreamerMade.

If you want to make a floating island out of recycled bottles, why not? Start planning it on DreamerMade.

Community Example #2 Projects for your Organization

If you're already part of a community organization or nonprofit, you can utilize DreamerMade for any projects in the works or ones you are thinking of developing. Invite your constituents, volunteers and other members to join in on the projects providing feedback and support towards your mission.

Venture Projects

GOAL: make some money

EXAMPLES: Start a Daycare, develop an App, make something New or get help with the tried and true.

Venture Example #1 Product or Service

Ever have an idea for a new product or service? Maybe you're even working on one now. Speaking from experience, it's really hard to develop a product or service based business especially if you're missing the funds, expertise or general direction of the next 'best' step to take.

On DreamerMade you can get help by getting feedback with the next step of your product or service and even find the right people to help complete those next steps for you. You're in control of the path for your business, DreamerMade just helps you make a clearer roadmap.

Venture Example #2 The Industry Disruptor

You hear about new products and services turning industries upside down everyday. Whether it's a service allowing you to rent movies from the comfort of your own to a mobile app that gives you a personal driver (or pilot..if you have it like that great for you ) with the push of a button. These started with fairly simple concepts to solve a problem, but took action and a great many steps to make them real.

So if you're holding back on technology or even concepts for self-driving cars to happen, please share or start working on them so you can release it to the world ; ).

That's it folks...

Make sure to check out the blog next week where I'll be discussing 'Shared' projects and the incredible potential I believe they will have for members of the community and the world.

If you haven't already, make sure to sign up for our blog, follow us on social media and most definitely sign up for an account on DreamerMade.com.

Have questions or thoughts on our community, blog topics or just want to say "Hi I like you"? You can do all of the above in the comments below, through our platform or by emailing hello@dreamermade.com.

Since this question is a biggie, I decided to take the opportunity to incorporate it into our first blog post. Let's do this.

DreamerMade helps entrepreneurs and creatives alike take action on ideas and projects they're passionate about by....

providing a secure online platform for capturing ideas

giving members control over what they choose to do or not do with these ideas

connecting members with the people and resources to bring these ideas to life (if they choose to)

The community side of DreamerMade comes into play when members invite others to contribute to their ideas and projects, which gives members the opportunity to contribute their skills and experience to bring the idea to life and earn rewards (whether it's a "thank you" or cold hard cash).

On DreamerMade ideas are in the form of projects and can be made Public, Private or Secret (depending on who you want to see it).

There are currently three project types to choose from Creative, Community, and Venture.

You can choose to mark any projects 'SHARED' regardless of type, which transfers ownership to the community so everyone can contribute. (This deserves it's own blog post).

I know examples make it easier to understand so I'm gonna break down what each of these project types look like in separate blog posts this week.

Until then, sign up for our blog, follow us on social media and most definitely sign up for an account on DreamerMade.com

Have questions or thoughts on our community, blog topics or just want to say "Hi I like you"? You can do all of the above in the comments below, through our platform or by emailing hello@dreamermade.com.